I just second that.
Buy an Arduino Uno, or better, Arduino Starter kit (either
original or one of the clones. It will guide you both with hardware and software from blinking a diode to PWM regulation to communication protocols, and all the components are at hand. (original set even includes printed manual, afaik),
Arduino IDE contains set of example programs to show the basics. Easy to read, quite easy to understand. I learned this way.